Wednesday, 28 September 2011

Poker Night at the Inventory Review

As crossovers go, Poker Night at the Inventory is a strange one. The game is available on Steam, and consists of an invisible, player-controlled protagonist playing poker against four characters: Max from the Sam and Max series, The Heavy from Team Fortress 2, Strong Bad from the Homestar Runner web series, and Tycho from the gaming webcomic Penny Arcade. The game is set in the titular Inventory, a secret underground club. That's as complicated as the story gets.

Like the story, the gameplay does not feature very much depth, unfortunately. The only poker game is available is Texas Hold 'Em, and so the gameplay does get somewhat repetitive very quickly. It is possible to unlock new card decks and designs for the poker table, as well as weapons for Team Fortress 2 based on the characters in the game, including Max's handgun and Tycho's watch, the latter of which can be used as a cloaking the device for The Spy in Team Fortress 2.

Arguably the best thing about Poker Night at the Inventory is its humour. Each character has many lines of funny dialogue, and it's fun to listen to exchanges between characters as they play poker. These are, at times, lauh-out-loud funny, but also repeat themselves after a while.

The game can be downloaded for the low price of £3.25, so it is good value. If you like playing poker and are looking for a poker experience beyond the generic games that can be found in an internet browser, the game comes recommended. It's also a good idea to buy this game if you want some new Team Fortress 2 items (though none of them are tradeable), but it won't last more than a few hours or so before the limited gameplay variation starts to grate somewhat. It's good value, but if you don't care about any of the series in which the characters star, and you're not looking for new Team Fortress 2 weapons, it may be a good idea to look for a free poker game online and save your money.